Google Fiber Download Speeds

[_microcell_]

I recently got Google Fiber and even though we're not getting download speeds as fast as I was expecting, benchmark sites measure speeds as high as 450MBps down and 950MBps up.

Nevertheless, my download speeds from Steam typically only average around 17MBps and never more than 25MBps. Also the downloads start and stop every few seconds.

We are using a wired connection with a gigabit card. 16gb ram. 7200 rpm hard drive.

I've checked our Steam settings and couldn't find anything on our end to limit bandwidth. I've shut down everything in the house that could be using bandwidth.

Any thoughts as to what is limiting my download speeds?

[Spawn of Totoro]

Speeds stated by the ISP are in Mb (Megabits), speeds stated on Steam are in MB (Megabytes).

It takes 8 Mb to make 1 MB so a 450 Mb/s connection will get you 56 MB/s max download speeds. That puts you a lot closer to what your max may be.

Other then that, there are othe factors goin on such as several (or dozens) of gateways, local network activity, your hardware setup and possibly activity on your ISP's line to name a few.

[_microcell_]

Ahhh. Thanks! Good info there. I missed that. So I'm not as far off as I thought but still I should be seeing better speeds. Consider this:

1. Speeds are consistent at different times of day and using different Steam download sites.

2. I literally shut off (unplugged) any other device in the house connected to the Internet.

3. My hardware has shown that it can download at faster speeds, just not from Steam.

4. It's Google Fiber. There's no way the bottleneck is with my ISP.

So I guess what I'm wondering is if Steam purposely limits download speeds or if there's a setting that I have wrong somewhere.

Thanks again for your help.

[Washell]

- Google fiber gives you the speed.
- Steam's server in the datacenter gives you the speed.
The 3 to 15 steps over the internet to get from google fiber to the datacenter may be congested, traffic shaped, or otherwise problematic.

Google fiber is good so multiple persons in the household can use heavy bandwidth applications without being a bother to each other. The internet isn't ready yet for a single service to saturate such bandwidth.